SCEMA Provides Morning Update on Western Schuylkill County Flooding

On Tuesday morning, the Schuylkill County Emergency Management Agency provided an update on the overnight rainfall and work in the coming days.

Heavy rainfall continued periodically throughout the evening and overnight in Schuylkill, with the main impact on the western municipalities of Pine Grove and Tremont boroughs, Pine Grove, Tremont, Washington, Frailey and Porter townships. Throughout Monday, water had subsided from roadways, allowing crews to inspect damage, clear debris and make repairs. With the evening rains, there was some local flooding on roads that typically are the first to flood. When preparing to travel this morning, we urge everyone to consult PA511 and use caution and common sense. Please do not drive through water on a flooded roadway.

An advance element of the Keystone Incident Management Team (K-IMT) is working with county and local first response staff to develop the Incident Action Plan that will guide response and recovery operations on Tuesday and perhaps beyond. The K-IMT is organized by the East Central Task Force (ECTF), comprised of the counties of Berks, Columbia, Luzerne, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Wyoming and also supported with staff from the counties within the South Central Mountain Task Force (SCMTF).

A more detailed assessment of damage will be completed in the coming days. This will include local action to identify structures that have been damages and pose an immediate hazard, as well as damage sustained by residents, businesses and public property such as roadways, storm water systems, culverts, bridges, etc. The results will be forwarded to the state through the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to determine if the impact can trigger a declaration from the Small Business Administration or FEMA. Residents and businesses should contact their insurance (flood and property) carriers to file claims for damage.

We would like to point out that throughout this incident, there has been wide-spread support coming from the people and organizations of Schuylkill County. The most obvious is within the fire service, where you could observe stations from across Schuylkill and Berks counties responding to support the local stations who had been working for hours to deal with this flooding event. The assistance did not stop at the fire service, law enforcement, public works, emergency medical all stepped up efforts. The public also was there to help, some as neighbor to neighbor and other was as volunteers for the Red Cross at the shelters in Pine Grove and Tremont. As this impact will be significant in the areas around Tremont and Pine Grove, we expect that more people and organizations will be joining the recovery effort after we deal with the immediate threat of the flooding.

The Schuylkill County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will remain open on Tuesday. Municipal EOC’s are open in Pine Grove and Tremont boroughs and Porter Township.